[HN Gopher] Restoring Faith: Crete's Ancient Minoan Civilisation...
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Restoring Faith: Crete's Ancient Minoan Civilisation (2009)
Author : diodorus
Score : 33 points
Date : 2025-03-17 04:10 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.historytoday.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.historytoday.com)
| nobodywillobsrv wrote:
| Funny that this article also makes the incorrect link between
| defense and preparing for war and "not having peace".
| kromem wrote:
| For throwing that much shade, it does a piss poor job in actually
| backing up or citing the evidence.
|
| Evans definitely had issues with how he went about things and his
| analysis. For example, the "snake goddess" is holding snakes
| remarkably similar to wooden snake props found in Egypt 300 years
| earlier.
|
| But this article is pretty damn empty of actual substance.
| yubblegum wrote:
| > "shared pagan roots" ..."his scholarly integrity"
|
| A mix of false & presumptuous generalizations, and a somewhat
| irritating yet unintentionally humorous and ironic collection of
| words.
| JKolios wrote:
| For some reason it was very hard for the Victorians who pioneered
| archaeology to understand that ancient humans were actual human
| beings and not storytelling archetypes or moral exemplars. This
| kind of archaeology is just inverted science fiction: Commenting
| on the present through the lens of the imaginary past, instead of
| the imaginary future.
| w0de0 wrote:
| The Victorians found it very hard to see contemporary humans as
| anything other than archetypes or moral exemplars. In this way
| they are quite similar to us moderns.
| achrono wrote:
| Despite me having (almost) nothing to do with the Victorians, I
| have to regularly shake off a vague sense of respecting the
| Greeks for having "laid the foundation" for us in the 21st c.
| Because they did nothing of the kind -- they were just doing
| things they wanted to do, just like we are today. Heron's
| aeolipile was a mechanical curiosity, not a steam engine. Big
| difference.
| pegasus wrote:
| I visited Knossos on three occasions and every time I returned I
| found it even more enchanting and evocative. Not only does it
| speak of a fascinating flourishing Bronze Age civilization which
| could be said to be, via the Greco-Roman, the grandmother of
| Western civilization, but also because it speaks just as loudly
| of another time of flourishing arts, this time much more recent,
| of all those artists mentioned in the article, and more besides.
|
| Evans clearly wasn't perfect, nor his restoration (confabulation?
| reinvention?) work, but I think they are also better than what
| the critics claim. For better or worse, he really did give new
| life to those old stones. Sure, he might well have exaggerated
| Minoan pacifism (and proto-feminism) to make a point, but didn't
| completely make it up either.
|
| Talking about Minoan art, here's [1] an article about a jaw-
| droppingly exquisite seal stone only recently discovered. Also
| related to the article in that it depicts a bloody war scene. It
| was found in a Mycenaean tomb, they were known to be much more
| war-like, so maybe a commission. What's most remarkable though it
| the anatomical precision which took a thousand years to be
| rediscovered/reinvented again, this time in Classical Greece. The
| same type of work stunningly modern-looking musculature depiction
| can be seen in a couple of fragments at the highly recommended
| Heraklion Archeological Museum in the capital of Crete. Worth
| checking out in the same museum, mind-bendingly playful yet
| refined pottery, called Kamares Ware.
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